Author: Nigel Ring

Having talked about how to make yourself more fundable in the previous post, we are now going to have two posts considering more about Money. Income streams The greater the diversity of options you hold for income, the more financially stable your charity will be and the more confidence a funder will have in your financial resilience. There are many possibilities: Donations – Fundraising events, special offerings, regular donors, crowd funding. These funds are normally unrestricted (see below). Grants – Generally awarded by grant making trusts as restricted funding, given for a specific activity / purchases. They are often project based (more below). Earned Income – Selling goods or services that might be related or unrelated to your charity's objects. You may need to consider setting up a trading subsidiary…

Having looked at how to find and approach funders, we will now look at how to re-package your activities to become more fundable. Consider a charity or church that ‘works with people in need in their local community’. It costs £50,000 a year to run. Surely the charity just needs four funders to chip in £10,000 per year towards their overall running costs, alongside some regular personal donations and local church support, and their funding requirements will be fully met. Oh that it were that simple! Unfortunately it rarely is. But there are things you can do to help. Split your activity into different fundable projects directly linked to outcomes and impact. In general, funders need to be specific with what they fund, so that normally means they want to…

Having looked in Part 3 at how we find potential funders we will now consider how to approach them. Making the applicationIn essence this is quite simple - approach them the way they ask you to approach them! Some will ask you to fill in their application form electronically and give you their deadline dates. Others may ask for a 2-page letter with a budget attached, explaining what you want to do and why they should fund you. Strangely, some applications for quite large amounts of money can be quite easy to fill in, whilst others for much smaller amounts can be really onerous and time consuming! But normally the greater the amount of funding being sought the greater the amount of detail and consequently time will be needed. Do…

As we continue to establish some solid foundations when fund raising, we will consider some more aspects of your grant application as seen through the eyes of the potential funder.     5. Financial Management – Demonstrating good governance Make sure your end of year accounts have a narrative in the trustees’ report section that endorses your application. It should detail community activities you have previously or are currently undertaking and highlight plans for the future. Ensure your accounts are filed on time and are not currently overdue with the Charity Commission or Companies House. If outstanding, this will cast doubt on your charity governance and therefore your ability to manage external funding. Your Reserves Policy is important and funders may ask to see it. It needs to explain the…

Introducing Julia I have known Julia Miller as a friend for many years. I know her heart for the poor (see bio below) and her success in raising funds to help churches in their ministries. Although she no longer works as a fundraiser her experience is invaluable. So I was delighted when she accepted my invitation to write a series for me on this important subject. Getting the Foundations right - How to be funding ready Unfortunately there are no ‘quick fixes’ when it comes to applying for funds. Standard funding letters can have some success, but in general they only generate small donations. A bit like tailoring your CV to each different job you apply for, grant funding applications are most effective when they are individually written and tailored…